Nethra Ganesan

Nethra Ganesan is a RIBA Part 2 architect, maker and spatial practitioner. She holds a MArch+AA Diploma from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, UK. Currently an Architect and Production Coordinator at the Sharjah Art Foundation, she is working on the adaptive reuse of old telecommunications and school buildings from the 70s, along with exploring sustainable production methods for exhibition design.
She is interested in developing her practice around processes of making that are rooted in community, craftsmanship, and customary knowledge. These tenets converged in the work done with the Nonurban Foundation - a non-profit organisation in India co-founded by Nethra in 2020. They worked with nonurban communities engaged in customary practices (such as farming, weaving, stone sculpture, among others) to enable sustainable, equitable, inclusive and thriving businesses in the rural. Nevertheless, here and now, having made the UAE her home, she is keen to explore how materials available in and around this landscape and local building systems can be recontextualised and made viable for larger-scale sustainable making practices. She is excited for the chance to connect the different stakeholders – the makers, the users, the designers by developing modular frameworks to test and propagate these new material fabrications.